That talent and maturity is why management’s plan for 2011 — though not yet formally announced — is to assign [Luis] Heredia to Bradenton of the rookie-level Gulf Coast League, an extraordinary step for a player his age. The Pirates are known to have had only one previous 16-year-old at that level in the past 40 years.

Pirates joking aside, Heredia is one to watch. He made Keith Law’s list of guys who fell just short of his Top 100 prospects list, which is pretty spiffy for a 16-year-old. He’s big and has big velocity for his or any other age. When you consider how much growing 16-year-old athletes usually have ahead of them, the ceiling on Heredia seems to be high, high, high.